This invention constitutes a specific improvement to a certain toy described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,778,184. That prior art toy comprises four first tubes disposed substantially end-to-end defining four first corners, four second tubes disposed substantially end-to-end defining four second corners and four third tubes disposed between respective paired first and second corners of the first and second tubes. Cord means extend through all of the tubes to hold the adjacent ends of the tubes flexibly together at the eight corners.
The prior art toy of the aforementioned patent was not intended, and indeed is unsuitable, for use by infants for two reasons. First, the squared-off tube ends are left unprotected and could present sufficiently sharp edges to cause injury if handled by an infant. Second, the prior art toy lacks manipulatable ornamental elements attractive to an infant in a manner similar to a baby's rattle.
Another characteristic of this prior art toy open to improvement concerns the cord means threaded through the twelve tubes to hold them together. While the patent mentions that there may be any number of ways of stringing the cord through the tubes, those ways specifically disclosed result in an unequal number of runs of the cord in the various tubes. Thus, one of the cord threading arrangements disclosed in the patent results in a single run of the cord in some tubes, a double run of the cord in other tubes and a triple run in still another of the tubes. The other method of threading the cord disclosed in the patent results in single and double runs of the cord in various of the tubes. In any case connections between two given tubes where more runs of the cord are in one of the tubes than in the other results in unequal securement. A tube connected to its neighbor by only one run of the cord is arguably less securely connected than is a tube connected to its neighbor by two or three runs of the cord.